1) The ocean is dead minus a few people trying to do their large scarecrow quests.
2) End game crafting is sadistic and rng. They'd be better off making the gap between grand -> rare -> epic -> heroic gear larger. Right now going from say a grand to an epic is extremely minimal. I hate having to craft L10 rings at cap. At least give me a shitty L50 item.
3) Submarines will soon be overly nerfed. I hope trion doesn't mess with the speed, just nerf the missles. A 1500g submarine should outplay and be faster than a 30g clipper.
4) Leveling skills is terrible. I respec'ed at cap... almost a month ago. I'm currently L44. It's faster to level three characters to cap then level a new tree with a L50. I would love to explore new builds, new avenues, but it's blocked.

I like the idea of gilda from intercontinental trade only. However, the removal of nui tears... I hope they add something worthwhile to waterlogged/treasure maps/hidden nui locations to compensate. That will greatly devalue the already expensive tractor though.

Okey so summer vacation starts next week. I need something to do for the past 8 weeks. I am so about to buy the Alpha, but I wonder if the Alpha will be up all summer? Is it worth buying now? Been on Twitch for 2 weeks watching Archeage Streams.. Getting tired of just logging on Rift just for the raids.

What you guys think? My alt in rift will soon hit 60, so i would waste about that amount of money on that game anyway, or buy a new one

- - - Updated - - -

: Alpha will run 24/7, beta will be only weekends here and there. Correct?

Alpha will run 24/7, beta will be only weekends here and there. Correct?

Correct, Alpha is running 24/7 now for past number of weeks with just an odd restart the server maintenance.

They said that when the Closed Beta Events start, lasting 3-5 days maybe? the Alpha will be down so apparently no Alpha and Betas running side by side. It's probably still worth buying into the Alpha still if you can afford it, server is running at three times it's capacity so it's stuffed with players everywhere.

The downside of that is trying to find a good spot for your 'Farm' as all the prime real estate is gone, can get lucky and come across a few 8x8 plots but the 16x16 and the rare 32x32 plots are a lot harder.

Will be reaching level 50 soon as i've just passed level 49 and seems i will have crap loads of quests left over, even saw the big, bad yesterday

I'm excited...I had been messing around on my husband's Alpha account, but we just got one for me as well yesterday so we could play it together. Hopefully I'll be able to level to 50 and get used to everything before game launch.

I know they hinted at wanting closed beta events to start in June...have they updated this at all? Mentioned open beta or launch dates?

The game has some really nice features, but there are serious red flag warning signs with ArcheAge currently in the form of a heavily exploitable client designed by Koreans who are perfectly fine with botting and easy hacks. This is screaming NCSoft Seattle levels of being ineffective at solving problems with how much Trion has to bow to XLGames to get anything done.

They need to hold off on BETA for a very long time to get this fixed. I am having flashbacks to Aion Alpha right now. Trion SHOULD be smart enough to tell XLGames they are not attaching their name to this game with such a easily exploitable client because this will destroy Trions rep as a producer in NA permanently.

Trion cannot fuck this one up because the Sandbox features of this game could change the landscape of NA if done correctly.

It is so unlikely Trion will tell a development partner they will "not attach their name" to a project as to be laughable to bring up. Publisher & developer relationships and corporate deal making don't really happen like that and certainly not with the kind of hyper specificity of "hacks".

I worked for two publishers of Taiwanese and Korean MMOs in North America and Europe. It literally will not happen as "Hey, fix this or we walk" type of scenario.

The suggestion is so fantastically unlikely I don't know what else say outside of a sardonic jpg.

The good news is that Trion have announced that ArcheAge will be launching in EU and NA with Patch 1.2, the 'bad' news is that with this extra ~70,000 words and voice overs to translate/voice act the Closed Betas and Betas are obviously moved back a few weeks now.

Plans however though, are to put 1.2 on Alpha as soon as possible, even with uncompleted translations and stuff, here's the full announcement:

ArcheAge to Launch with XLGames' Patch 1.2

If you've been following ArcheAge, you may have heard about a game update simply called Patch 1.0.

Initially released in Korea, this update has been the source of no small amount of concern from our ArcheAge community since we announced the game was coming to North America and Europe. Upon seeing the behavior of the patch's changes in the wild, the game's developer, XLGames, agreed that ArcheAge's balance and feel had shifted in an unintentional direction. Behind the scenes, we've been carefully following public feedback over the past few months, and had a chance to exhaustively test out the update on our own internal servers. While there are a number of gameplay improvements, we agree with their conclusion.

Both Trion Worlds and XLGames are eager to maintain the game's sandbox nature. Our mutual, overriding goal has always been to release the best quality, most fun experience possible. Toward that end, members of our ArcheAge Team visited XLGames this past week to discuss Patch 1.0. Together, we've forged the best possible path to launch for Trion Worlds' version of ArcheAge.

We're thrilled to announce that both Trion Worlds and XLGames have agreed that it's best for us go live with Patch 1.2's amazing improvements when we launch with English, French, and German languages in 2014. Launching with Patch 1.2 is a challenge as it adds over 70,000 words to translate. Since we want a complete English translation before introducing a larger audience to the game, this does mean that our Beta schedule has shifted by a few weeks. That means that we can't announce a specific date for the first Beta right now, but we wanted to get the great news about the game itself out as early as possible.

Patch 1.2 also introduces a host of exciting improvements on its own, including increased experience per Labor Point spent, a searchable crafting folio that works with recipe or ingredient names, significantly reduced (from Patch 1.0) glider turbulence on the high sea, and the ability to earn experience from crafting with maxed-out professions and participating in PvP during a war. Additionally, the Marketplace (in-game store) will be available before Beta begins and we'll grant testers sufficient currency to test it out. It's important to note that our previously announced game improvements such as international trade routes granting Gilda Stars, storyline quests earning experience, and trade packs dividing turn-in rewards 80/20 between pack holder and pack owner will persist through this update.

We're actively working with XLGames to bring our first build featuring Patch 1.2 changes to our Alpha server for gameplay testing and feedback. Since time is of the essence, we will not be holding this build back while waiting on complete translation, meaning that our Alpha testers will see partially translated content and will be asked to focus their feedback purely on how the gameplay feels. Rest assured, we do not anticipate the need to wipe the Alpha server for this update.

With this new game plan announced, the team is very interested to hear your thoughts and to be able to answer your questions. Our weekly livestream will be all about our visit with XLGames and the news revealed in this announcement. Ask your questions in this forum thread and then join us tomorrow afternoon on Twitch where we'll field as many as possible.

Our sincere thanks to each and every one of you for being a member of ArcheAge's pre-launch community. We're glad you're on this adventure with us!

It is so unlikely Trion will tell a development partner they will "not attach their name" to a project as to be laughable to bring up. Publisher & developer relationships and corporate deal making don't really happen like that and certainly not with the kind of hyper specificity of "hacks".

I worked for two publishers of Taiwanese and Korean MMOs in North America and Europe. It literally will not happen as "Hey, fix this or we walk" type of scenario.

The suggestion is so fantastically unlikely I don't know what else say outside of a sardonic jpg.

I do not see Scott Hartsman even remotely allowing this game into BETA until they get more control over the client or they get the Koreans to push out better hacks, bot, and gold spam protections.

There are investors, board of directors, regional contracts, licensing, marketing and accounting involved that make such a prospect as "not attach our name to this" so unlikely as to be laughable.

Honestly. It simply doesn't work like that without Trion eating a HUGE cost to their business and business relations in the industry. And all future investment and finance.

This is my current theory:

Selling access to the Alpha for $150 basically gives them a huge revenue stream so they are not forced to release a unfinished product. So watch this and tell me if you can guess what might be scaring Trion about client issues they might want to address before a open BETA

Selling access to the Alpha for $150 basically gives them a huge revenue stream so they are not forced to release a unfinished product. So watch this and tell me if you can guess what might be scaring Trion about client issues they might want to address before a open BETA

Doubtful that $150 access pass even covers payroll for a month at Trion. Yet alone the costs of porting the game to NA and all the associated costs that are incurred in regional production, licensing and publishing fees. And taxes.

The $150 access fee revenue is a drop in the bucket. Insignificant to whatever deal was brokered to allow Trion to publish and alter AA regionally. Certainly not enough to use as leverage to a developer whom Trion needs more than they need Trion. For the dev, the game is already sold. They don't have to do anything outside of their contract with the publisher.

And it would be VERY rare for a dev to agree to a regional publisher's terms if those terms compromise or force added work to their development pipeline. Why would you even agree to such a thing as a developer? The answer is; they very rarely do.

Bugs, hacks and glitches happen. But the train has already left the station for Trion to say, "No uh! We are turning back!"

So outside of the few quest text issues were are obvious considering this is Alpha no bugs so far. The game really needs a Full Screen windowed mode and that is supposed to be getting worked on by the Koreans.